Back to baking (+ recipes)

Years ago, the words "Ladies a plate" on an invitation was a signal for women to get baking. Charmian Smith talks to Alexa Johnston, author of a new book on the delights of recipes of a past age.

Once most New Zealand women were expert home bakers, bringing plates of dainty cakes and tempting treats to community suppers or family functions.

They entertained each other to afternoon tea with sumptuous arrays of cakes and biscuits, served from fine china on embroidered cloths.

They also shared recipes, whether it was between friends, through Aunt Daisy's radio programme, or in community and fundraising cookbooks.

Alexa Johnston, a keen home baker since childhood, has collected traditional recipes from many community cookbooks, updated them to metric measurements and simple but full instructions in Ladies, A Plate.

Now a curator and writer, she grew up learning to bake in the 1950s and '60s, and soon loved cooking of all sorts.

In the 1970s, as a feminist, she believed political and social change were necessary for women to have control of their own lives, but she still chose to bake as a hobby.

"Feminism is about choice and baking was a choice. For some women it was a huge relief not to have to bake.

"Now where feminism is, it is still possible to make a choice, and I think baking is a better way of spending your time and money than going out and buying stuff - and you end up with a better result, too," she said.

"When you bake for other people it gives them pleasure as well. It's a bit of a win-win situation."

However, in the 1970s, when more women worked outside the home, baking skills began to disappear.

Also, there was not as much time for afternoon teas, where baking naturally fitted.

Food historians have explained the rise of afternoon tea as a vehicle for entertaining as a result of women no longer having help in the house, Ms Johnston said.

"A lot of people had help - these poor 13-year-old girls who were looking for something to do until they got pregnant and got married - it must have been a nightmare."

Afternoon tea was mainly prepared in advance and it was up to the hostess to serve it, so there was no need to apologise that there was no maid.

It led to the upsurge in sales of cup, saucer and plate sets and silver tea services and doilies and embroidered cloths, many of them worked by the women themselves.

"I really respect the skills of these women. It's easy to say look at that pile of embroidered cloths in the corner of the op shop, but it took someone a huge amount of time and they had a lot of other things to do usually.

"The one on the cover [of Ladies a Plate] is one of the most beautiful pieces of expert embroidery I've seen. The choice of colour is subtle and padded satin stitch is very fine - it's beautiful, flawless.

"I wanted to acknowledge those things have given me huge pleasure, to celebrate the pleasure and fun you can get from this kind of cooking."

Known among her friends as a good cook and often asked for recipes, she decided to collect her favourites into one place, hence the book, she says.

She has included the original measurements, along with metric for use in today's kitchen.

Little snippets about the sources of the recipes and even photographs of handwritten recipes or the community cookbooks the recipes came from add an extra dimension.

Sharing social and personal history is another feminist thing, she says.

"The stories of our lives all interweave and have some relation to the social situation we are in and the politics of where we are."

Recipes from Ladies, A Plate: traditional home baking by Alexa Johnston (Penguin pbk $45)Miracles

An irresistible name for a very simply made little cake and one that seems to be a New Zealand invention.

You
cut a piece out of the top of each chocolate cake, drop in a small
spoonful of good red jam, then replace the lid and ice the cakes.

Serve
them the following day and the jam will be an unexpected surprise,
having miraculously inserted itself inside the cake, under the icing.

A slightly tame miracle, maybe, but a good one.

This version of miracles has a particularly easy mixing method, using melted butter, so no creaming is required.

It comes from Mrs R. Morrison,
who contributed it to a very small, typed collection of recipes from
the Roslyn Methodist Church in Dunedin, around 1960.

For the cakes

6oz flour (170g)
1 large tsp baking powder (1 tsp)
1 Tbsp cocoa
4oz sugar (115g)
1/2 cup milk (115ml)
1 Tbsp golden syrup
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 egg
2 oz butter (55g)
4 Tbsp raspberry jam

For the icing

2 cups icing sugar (240g)
2 Tbsp cocoa
4 Tbsp butter (60g)
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 Tbsp hot water
24 glacé cherries

Getting ready

Preheat the oven to 190degC. Line 24 patty tins with paper cases.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and cocoa, then add the sugar. Melt the butter.

Mixing and baking

1. Put the milk, golden syrup and sifted baking soda into a medium-sized saucepan and warm together, stirring well.

2. When the mixture begins to foam up, tip in the dry ingredients, followed by the egg and the melted butter and mix well.

3. Spoon the mixture into the prepared cases and bake for about 10 minutes until firm and well risen. Cool on a wire rack.

Finishing

1. Using a small serrated knife, cut an inverted cone from the tops of the cakes - keep each with its base and spoon in a little jam, then replace the tops.

2 Make the icing by sifting together the icing sugar and cocoa, adding the butter, and then mixing to a smooth creamy consistency with the vanilla and a little hot water.

3. Ice the cakes with the chocolate icing, top each with a cherry and leave until the next day before serving.

Makes 24 miracles.

---

Scott's farewell square

Captain Robert Scott's last expedition sailed from Port Chalmers for the Antarctic on the Terra Nova on November 29, 1910.

The people of Dunedin had been given a half-day's holiday and thousands turned out to say goodbye.

I imagine Scott's farewell square being made by a parishioner of St Mark's Presbyterian Church, Pine Hill, Dunedin (in whose 1960s recipe book it appeared) and presented to the famous explorer on a pretty plate at a farewell afternoon tea.

Captain Scott died with four other members of his expedition on the return journey from the South Pole.

The news shocked and saddened the nation.

This square contains plenty to sustain a man on a long, cold journey: dates, raisins, coconut, walnuts, cocoa, butter, sugar, golden syrup, an egg and even crushed Weet-Bix.

Take it next time you go tramping, in memory of the heroic age of Antarctic exploration.

Ingredients

4oz butter (115g)
6oz brown sugar (170g)
1 dsp golden syrup (2 tsp)
1 egg
6oz flour (170g)
pinch salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 Tbsp cocoa
3oz coconut (85g)
2oz walnuts (55g)
4 Weet-Bix
4oz dates (115g)
2oz raisins (55g)

For the icing

1 cup icing sugar (120g)
2 Tbsp cocoa
1 Tbsp butter

Getting ready

Preheat the oven to 190degC.

Line a shallow tin with baking paper, or grease it lightly.

Soften the butter.

Mixing and baking

1. Cream the butter and sugar until light, then mix in the golden syrup and the egg, combining everything very well.

2. Sift in the flour, salt, baking powder and cocoa and mix to combine, then add the remaining ingredients. Stir everything thoroughly together.

3. Tip the mixture into the prepared tin, spread it out evenly, and bake for 15-20 minutes.

4. Remove from the oven and put on a wire rack to cool.

Finishing

1. Make a thin chocolate icing from icing sugar sifted with cocoa and mixed to a spreading consistency with melted butter and a little hot water.

2. Spread over the cake, sprinkle with coconut and cut into squares when the icing has set.

3. The icing can be omitted if you are planning to carry this in a lunch box or pack. Store airtight.

Makes 16 substantial squares.